A case for time-dependent shortest path computation in spatial networks

The problem of point-to-point shortest path computation in spatial networks is extensively studied with many approaches proposed to speed-up the computation. Most of the existing approaches make the simplifying assumption that weights (e.g., travel-time) of the network edges are constant. However, with real-world spatial networks the edge travel-times are time-dependent, where the arrivaltime to an edge determines the actual travel-time of the edge. With this paper, we study the applicability of existing shortest path algorithms to real-world large time-dependent spatial networks. In addition, we evaluate the importance of considering time-dependent edge travel-times for route planning in spatial networks. We show that time-dependent shortest path computation can reduce the traveltime by 36% on average as compared to the static shortest path computation that assumes constant edge travel-times. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.2.8 [Database Management]: Database Applications, Spati...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: GIS
• Authors: Ugur Demiryurek, Farnoush Banaei Kashani, Cyrus Shahabi
• Keywords: Automated Reasoning, GIS 2010, Shortest Path, Shortest Path Computation, Spatial Network